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Featured Term selected at random:FERULE (ferula) The long rod with which until recently priests of the Vatican Sacred Penitentiary lightly touched penitents. Pope Benedict XIV granted a twenty day's indulgence for observing this symbolic rite. A ferule was also the cane with a short transverse on top with which clergy and the people would support themselves during liturgical services before sitting down was allowed. Maronite monks and dissident Ethiopians and Coptics still use such a staff in choir. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

CONFESSION " Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained" - John 20:22"He that covers his sins shall not prosper; but whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy" - Prov 28:13 "My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto Him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me" - Josh 7:19   The Biblical TeachingThe Catholic Priest forgives sinners of their sins in the name of Jesus Christ, by the Authority given to priest...

You are Going to Die – An After Ash Wednesday Reflection By: Msgr. Charles PopeAt Ash Wednesday Masses we heard the ancient acclamation, as ashes are imposed, Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.The  beginning of the Lenten season puts before us an urgent plea that we should be sober and watchful of our soul and its condition, for the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:31).Simply put, we are going to die and we need to be made ready to meet our God. Recall some of the urgency present in the...

Rob Bell believes the Bible is irrelevant. The Bible says Rob Bell is irrelevant. Transcript: At some level, I’m happy when this happens, it’s not that unusual. We have someone who makes a splash in our little world, the evangelical world. And he typically makes that splash because he’s quite effective at gathering large numbers. But after a while we begin to doubt his loyalty to the core convictions of evangelicals. Well, it’s not unusual when this happens that about this same time, our hero with the wide reach determines to turn on we evangelicals and embrace the broader world....

CHAPTER 10 Popes and Ropes ROPES are often used to tie things up. If someone were to grab you and put ROPES all around you and tie you up, you would be unable to move very well. You would be greatly hindered and crippled and unable to get around freely. You would be all bound up by the ropes. Things would be very difficult for you in this condition. You would need someone to come along and SET YOU FREE by untying the ropes or by cutting them off from you. Ever since about 500 A.D. different men called POPES...

For the Church, Lent like Advent is a "powerful season" a season of waiting and preparing and therefore a time for sacrifice, repentance, and purification. But, in our hedonistic society of today these words seem to strike a rather discordant note. So, is it fair to ask : how do we speak today about sacrifice and how do we practice it ?? Lent lasts for 40 days - as many days as Jesus Christ spent in the desert before he took on his mission of salvation. 40 is a sacred number in the Bible : the Deluge lasted for 40...

Why I Don’t Observe Lent The practice of self-denial is to be the daily experience of the believer. Written by Roland Barnes | Monday, March 3, 2014 79 What merit or benefit is there in abstaining from something which God Himself has given us to enjoy and to bless our lives? If something is sinful, we ought to abstain from it, fast from it, every hour of the day, every day of the week, and every week of the year. If something is not sinful and not forbidden to us by God in His Word, then we are free to...

BAPTISM[Prophecy] Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. - Ezekiel 36:25  Baptism is the First Sacrament, without it, no other sacrament can be validly received. The Old Covenant was entered into through circumcision; the New Covenant is entered into through Baptism. "Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of GOD...Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of WATER AND THE HOLY GHOST, he cannot enter...

Featured Term selected at random:REPENTANCE Voluntary sorrow because it offends God, for having done something wrong, together with the resolve to amend one's conduct by taking the necessary means to avoid the occasions of sin. To repent is to be sorry for sin with self-condemnation. (Etym. Latin repoenitere, to be very sorry, regret intensely.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Want to drop a V6 engine into your Volkswagen Bug prayer life? Looking to live as one worthy to be called the Bride of Christ? Would you like to battle sin and Satan and sabotage like the mighty saints of yore? Then gird your loins, grab a red marker, and open your calendar to the first week of Lent. You’ll want to scribble this prayer on Friday, February 20th: Come, Holy Spirit, living in Mary… Only two days after Ash Wednesday, Friday, February 20th is not only a day for fasting and walking the Stations of the Cross. It’s also...

On the “Outrage” of the Flood and the Purposes of God By: Msgr. Charles PopeTo the modern mind, the story of Noah and the flood is  a dark tale and one that is hard to equate with the “loving God” (i.e., the “kind” God of our notions). Why would God regret what He had done and want to kill everything He had made?Now never mind that we do this all the time when we harvest a field, or prune our roses or slaughter animals to feed ourselves, etc. When we do these things, we understand why we do them and so...

Are There Still Apostles Today? by Nathan Busenitz Are there apostles in the church today?Just ask your average fan of TBN, many of whom consider popular televangelists like Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, and Joel Osteen to be apostles. (Here’s one such example [see page 22].)Or, you could ask folks like Ron, Dennis, Gerald, Arsenio, Oscar, or Joanne. They not only believe in modern-day apostleship, they assert themselves to be apostles.A quick Google search reveals that self-proclaimed apostles abound online. Armed with a charismatic pneumatology and often an air of spiritual ambition, they put themselves on par with the earliest leaders of the church.So what are Bible-believing Christians to think about...

Featured Term selected at random:OCCASION OF SIN Any person, place, or thing that of its nature or because of human frailty can lead one to do wrong, thereby committing sin. If the danger is certain and probable, the occasion is proximate; if the danger is slight, the occasion becomes remote. It is voluntary if it can easily be avoided. There is no obligation to avoid a remote occasion unless there is probable danger of its becoming proximate. There is a positive obligation to avid a voluntary proximate occasion of sin even though the occasion of evildoing is due only to...

On October 31st 1517 Anno Domini a comically tonsured German monk, with an attitude and a mallet posted the Medieval equivalent of a snarky  blog post on the castle door at Wittenberg. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses voiced irrefragable concerns about doctrine, ecclesiastical abuses, and unbiblical doctrines. The paper was merely intended to spark debate and reform within the Roman Catholic Church.However, the spark blew a little further than the intramural playground of the Vatican. The white squall of God’s Spirit (with a little help from Guttenberg’s press and a Latin-German dictionary) ignited the hearts of the masses, as the...

Evolution makes atheists out of people! By Jonathan Sarfati Out on ministry at churches, our speakers often encounter anguished parents (and grandparents) lamenting that their children now reject the faith in which they were raised. If you too are a parent with this same angst, I remind you that Adam and Eve failed even with the best possible raising from God Himself, as well as enjoying perfect health and living in paradise. And Judas Iscariot remained unsaved despite three years with the best teacher ever: Jesus Himself. Evolution undermines basic Christian doctrines Having said that, there is a common pattern...

Considering the Crusades in the Context of the Current Conflict with Radical Islamists By: Msgr. Charles PopeRecent and persistent attacks by radical Muslims, especially the most recent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians, have many asking what can or should be done to end such atrocities. Military actions by numerous countries, including our own, are already underway. Most feel quite justified in these actions and many are calling for more concerted efforts to eliminate ISIS and related zealots who seem to know no pity, no reason, and no limits. I do not write here to opine on the need for...

Do you find it difficult to believe in God or accept the claims of Christianity? I did, when I was an atheist, but I changed my mind, and my reasons for doing so may be of interest to you in your own personal journey and attempts to make sense of life. I am a freelance writer and lecturer. Since graduating from Oxford in 1973, with a degree in politics and philosophy, I have spent most of my professional life in politics and journalism, loving, as I do, the world of books, ideas and debate. Two questions in particular have always...

Sunday, December 29, 2013 Against Rome's Apostolic Succession Argument by Bullinger (Part 1) Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) was a Swiss Reformer and author of a popular writing entitled The Decades. This particular writing was influential in England, highly esteemed and used as a textbook of sorts for training English clergy. Included in The Decades is a section entitled Of The Holy Catholic Church, and included therein is Bullinger's refutation of Rome's apostolic succession argument (that Rome is the true church because of an historical succession of church authority that began with Peter). Here is the first part of Bullinger's argument: Second,...

Featured Term selected at random:IGNORANCE OF LAW Lack of knowledge of some provision of law, civil or ecclesiastical, of its meaning or application in a given case. Culpability, then, will depend on how morally responsible one is for one's ignorance. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Friday, October 08, 2010 The Late Development of the Bishop of Rome John Bugay has posted on Hermas and the structure of the early Roman church before. I don't have anything original to add to that discussion. However, I'd like to provide some corroboration by Roman Catholic scholars Raymond Brown and John Meier, whose book received both the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur (bold mine): There is no doubt that it [The Shepherd of Hermas] was written at Rome (Vis. 1.1.1.; 2.1.1; 4.1.2); and the suggestion that Clement would send it abroad (Vis. 2.4.3) may mean that Hermas' revelations had...